Alliant Energy to sell Minnesota Holdings (including communities/customers in Redwood County

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Main News Photo

Published 4:00pm Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Albert Lea Evening Tribune By Tim Engstrom

Alliant Energy announced Tuesday it is selling its electric distribution business in Minnesota to a dozen local electric cooperatives and its natural gas operations to Rosemount-based Minnesota Energy Resources.

There will be no changes immediately. After the $128 million transaction gets regulatory approval, Albert Lea residents will pay their electricity bill to Albert Lea-based Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services and their gas to Minnesota Energy Resources.

“We are really pleased that this deal fell together, and it is good for our customers,” said Tom Aller, president of Interstate Power & Light, an Alliant subsidiary based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Alliant Energy’s headquarters are in Madison, Wis.

Alliant’s Minnesota territories are in southern Minnesota, with 45,000 customers spread over 15,000 square miles. Some have electricity. Some have gas. Many have both. The largest area of customers are in and around Albert Lea.

Aller said the company had been approached before about selling its territories, but those offers were a chunk here or there. What made sense this time, he said, was that the cooperatives joined to form one entity called the Southern Minnesota Energy Cooperative, which plans to purchase the entire system in a single regulatory process.  Click here to view the map and complete article!

Category: Economic Development, Energy, Utilities